Risk Manager

Job Type: Regular

Time Type: Full time

Work Shift: Day (United States of America)

FLSA Status: Exempt

When you join the growing BILH team, you're not just taking a job, you’re making a difference in people’s lives.

Job Description:

Duties/Responsibilities:

• Under the guidance of the Senior Director of Quality and Patient Safety, members of Senior Leadership and others as necessary work to promote a culture of Safety, Performance Improvement and High Reliability.  This may include leading teams, providing training and similar duties in support of the hospital’s efforts to build a high-performance culture.

• Oversee the Risk Management office for BID-P including all phases of actual and potential claims management. Identifies exposures to loss and analyzes the impact on the organization.

• Oversee and manage the internal Adverse Event reporting function as a critical element of the system’s safety program.  As needed, ensures appropriate responses to Adverse Events to mitigate immediate threats to safety and address other serious issues.

• Collaborates with Nurse Directors, Managers, providers and other staff to keep all Hospital personnel informed regarding risk management and patient safety issues.

• Investigates and monitors all hospital sentinel events and near misses within 72 hours of the event.  Review and analyze event reports, conduct investigations and follow-up with appropriate management staff.

• Support, provide guidance, and assist providers with disclosure of an event when indicated.

• The Risk Manager will lead Root Cause Analyses, Failure Mode Effects Analyses and apply Performance Improvement methodology in order to improve error prone systems and processes as part of a system-wide effort to promote high reliability. Specifically, the Risk Manager will conduct root cause analyses in response to near misses, serious adverse events, and sentinel events to determine the causes of these events; assists in developing corrective action plans and improvement initiatives to eliminate these causes; and assess risks of new programs.

• Conduct Risk Management orientation training. Develop and make recommendations for educational Risk Management programs based on needs assessment. Conduct educational activities for the staff and physicians to promote risk reduction strategies.

• The Risk Manager represents the hospital as an agent for service of legal process, coordinates activities such as record requests, assists legal counsel with malpractice, hospital litigation and depositions.

• Refers lawsuits, claims and potential claims to CRICO, the hospital's liability insurance carrier, for monitoring, investigation or defense and completes necessary claims paperwork.

• Communicates in a timely and appropriate manner with CRICO regarding claims issues. Work with the BID-P insurance carriers to minimize loss exposure both reactively and proactively.

• Work with staff, physicians, insurance companies, attorneys and any other parties who may be relevant parties in a malpractice or liability claim. 

• Provides ongoing support to CRICO and hospital counsel in the litigation process: contacts hospital employees for depositions, assists in obtaining answers to interrogatories, requests for production of documents and records from multiple BID-P sources.

• Counsels hospital employees as necessary with regard to legal proceedings in which they are professionally involved.

• Works with the Office of General Counsel as necessary.

• Collaborate with our Clinical Services and Medical Staff Officers with tracking/trending of adverse outcomes and medical malpractice claims in order to improve quality of care and advance patient safety.

• Participate in the Complaint and Grievance response function.  Assure that this function is timely in responding to patient concerns and does so in a clear, respectful and compassionate manner.

• Meet with patients, families and staff to address questions and concerns that may arise in regard to actual or perceived adverse events.  Where such events have occurred, assist in developing positive relationships with staff, patients and families to help in bringing about a useful, appropriate and timely resolution.

• As a member of the Division of Quality and Patient Safety, the Risk Manager is a key resource in the planning and implementation of efforts to create highly reliable clinical systems at BID-P.

• Participates in and promotes a mechanism of continuous process improvement that betters patient care outcomes over time.

• Reports outcomes periodically to Administration and other bodies as required/ requested on the institution’s risk experience and efforts to optimize the experience in the future.

• Serve as the primary contact for BID-P to the Massachusetts DPH, the Boards of Registration in Medicine and Nursing, and other regulatory agencies as needed.  In particular lead the investigation and response to all adverse events that are reported to the DPH and oversee all reporting requirements related to serious adverse events including PCA committee at the Board of Registration in Medicine and the Joint Commission.

• Manage and follow up on equipment recalls along with Identification and development of information related to equipment failures to ensure compliance with the reporting requirements of the Safe Medical Devices Act.

It is understood that this is a summary of key job functions and does not include every detail of the job that may reasonably be required.

Education/Experience Required:

• BSN Required with Current Massachusetts RN license

• Masters Degree in Nursing, Healthcare Management or related field. Preferred

• A minimum of 5 years of experience in Healthcare Risk Management or Patient Care Management required

• Risk Manager experience in healthcare setting preferred

• Proven ability to function independently and communicate effectively at all levels of an organization required.

• Must be able to demonstrate knowledge and experience in fundamentals of performance improvement, patient safety and risk management (Root Cause Analysis, Failure Modes Effects Analysis, Disclosure, basic statistics, run charts, control charts etc.)

• Must have strong organizational, analytical and computer technology skills (Word, Excel and PowerPoint); Database experience preferred.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills

• Good listening skills

• Comfortable in emotionally charged settings with patients, families and / or staff

• Experience in conflict resolution

• Prior experience in direct responsibility for regulatory affairs and claims management strongly preferred

Registration/Certification:

• Certification in risk management (CPHRM) or obtained within the first five years

Physical/Environmental Requirements

This job requires frequent bending, carrying, pulling, pushing, reaching, standing, stooping, walking and lifting over 10 lbs. There will be occasional need for climbing stairs, lifting in excess of 50 – 100 lbs and sitting. Constant use of hearing, sight and speech. Frequent use of smell and touch. Frequent keyboard and telephone use. Constant concentration and problem solving.

As a health care organization, we have a responsibility to do everything in our power to care for and protect our patients, our colleagues and our communities. Beth Israel Lahey Health requires that all staff be vaccinated against influenza (flu) and COVID-19 as a condition of employment. Learn more about this requirement.

More than 35,000 people working together. Nurses, doctors, technicians, therapists, researchers, teachers and more, making a difference in patients' lives. Your skill and compassion can make us even stronger.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled